Extraordinary Works Without a Special Fund: Invalid Resolution

When the owners' meeting resolves on extraordinary maintenance or improvements, it must establish a special fund equal to the amount of the works: this is required by Article 1135, first paragraph, number 4, of the Italian Civil Code. If the resolution approves the works without establishing this fund, it breaches a legal rule and becomes challengeable before the court within thirty days. The fund ensures the condominium has the funding available before engaging the contractor, protecting both paying owners and third parties. Let us look at how the obligation works, the only permitted exception and what an owner who discovers the missing fund can do.

Why the law requires the special fund

The 2012 condominium reform introduced the special fund obligation for a precise reason: to prevent costly worksites from opening without the necessary money. Before the reform, works often started relying on owners' goodwill to pay instalments; when someone defaulted, the contractor was left unpaid and the condominium exposed. The fund, equal to the cost of the works, makes the funding available upstream, before the obligation towards the contractor is assumed.

The special fund is not a formality but a substantive condition for the correct formation of the meeting's will regarding extraordinary spending. Its absence means the meeting decided to spend without guaranteeing how to pay, exposing the condominium to a risk the law seeks to prevent.

The only exception: payment by work stages

The rule provides a single alternative to establishing the fund in full. If the works are carried out under a contract providing for gradual payment based on their progressive stages, the fund may be established in relation to the individual payments due. In practice, the condominium does not have to set aside the entire sum immediately, but may feed the fund as the payments provided for in the works contract fall due.

This exception does not eliminate the obligation, it modulates it. Even with payment by work stages, the resolution must ensure that, at each contractual deadline, the corresponding funding is available. Ignoring the fund entirely, on the other hand, remains a defect even when the specification provides for staggered payments.

What happens if the fund is missing

A resolution approving extraordinary works without a special fund is affected by a defect that, according to the prevailing view, makes it voidable. It is not void, because it lacks no essential element and does not affect owners' individual rights: it breaches a rule on the procedure for forming the expense. The practical consequence is that the defect cannot be raised at any time, but only within a short deadline.

• Those entitled to challenge are absent, dissenting or abstaining owners.
• The deadline is thirty days under Article 1137 of the Italian Civil Code.
• It runs from the date of the resolution for dissenting or abstaining owners present, and from communication of the minutes for absent owners.
• Once the thirty days pass without challenge, the resolution consolidates and binds everyone.

The manager's role

The manager has a duty of sound management: they should not start the works or sign the works contract if the fund has not been resolved. Starting an extraordinary worksite without funding means exposing the condominium to default towards the contractor and themselves to liability. It is good practice for the manager, when calling the meeting, to place on the agenda both the approval of the works and the establishment of the fund with its allocation plan, so that the two aspects are resolved together.

How to structure the resolution correctly

A solid resolution on extraordinary works always contains certain elements: identification of the work and the estimate, the amount of the special fund equal to the cost of the works, the methods and deadlines for payment, the allocation criterion and, if payment by work stages is chosen, express reference to the contract providing for it. Precisely minuting these points reduces room for challenges and puts the condominium in a position to pay the contractor smoothly.

Managing a special fund means keeping control of the amounts set aside, owners' payments and payments to the contractor. With AmministraPro the manager links the spending resolution to the allocation plan and monitors the status of the fund and instalments in real time, so that funding always tracks the progress of the worksite. The accounting and fund management features are described on /funzioni and the plans for every firm on /prezzi.